The first assembly line in 1914 led to the average weekly working hours being reduced from 48 to 40 hours. Now, there could be the next revolutionary reduction to a 3.5-day week – meanwhile, the 4-day week has not yet taken hold globally.
How is that possible? Eric S. Yuan is the CEO of Zoom and explains (via LinkedIn), how it might be possible to further reduce working hours. He believes that “digital twins” can facilitate our working lives and take over many automatic processes:
The artificial intelligence we know today will evolve into intelligent, digital assistants capable of drafting responses to emails that we can send right at the start of the day, helping us decide which meetings to attend, and even assisting us in contract negotiations, thus reducing our workload.
The AI twins are supposed to be fully personalized and could create more room to prioritize creative and strategic tasks. According to him, this could trigger a productive revolution that could even go beyond the 4-day week, that some employees are secretly working.
Digital twins could enable a 3.5-day week
How can working hours be further reduced? The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, believes in the introduction of a 3.5-day week (via Bloomberg). According to him, this working time model could lead to dramatic changes in productivity and an increase in quality of life.
He swears by the support of artificial intelligence, as Yuan mentioned. AI could take over around 60 to 70% of the tasks that currently consume employees’ time.
He believes that this model could become standard for the next generation. Employees could live to be 100 years old and could probably already benefit from the 3.5-hour week. And who knows, maybe his vision will come true sooner.
His own company, the largest bank in America, has already implemented AI in many areas. Therefore, Dimon is a suitable expert to assess AI in the workplace.
The trend towards reduced working hours is demonstrated by several examples. In Japan, the introduction of the 4-day week was not enough, which is why they are additionally cutting 2 hours – per day.
For other employees, the trend for shorter workweeks does not seem to have arrived yet. He requires his employees to work around 80 hours a week. In the following MeinMMO article, you can read how he defends the model: The 22-year-old CEO of a company demands that his employees work 80 hours a week: “We do not offer work-life balance”
